Invalid walkers are now a well-known aid for those who are aged, handicapped, injured or otherwise experience difficulty in walking normally and require some kind of stabilizing assistance. While these walkers may vary in structural details, they in general include a generally U-shaped top frame member, having a base section and two arm sections, which is supported more or less horizontally at a convenient height above the ground by four legs extending rigidly downwardly from the two corners and the ends of the two arm sections. Usually the legs are braced at one or more intermediate points along their length either by a similar U-frame or by individual bracing members extending between the two corner legs and between each corner leg and the corresponding end leg, leaving open the side between the end legs.
In use, the person requiring assistance positions himself in the open side of the U-shaped frame while grasping the adjacent arm sections, moves the walker a short distance forward and then makes a following step while placing weight upon the walker and being stabilized thereby against falling. Because of the fourpoint contact with the ground and the relatively wide disposition of its legs, the walker constitutes a stable supporting structure and is of valuable assistance to its user.
Implicit in the steadying effect of such walker is the requirement that it be grasped by both hands of the user. Even if sufficient support were received from only one hand, one would find it somewhat awkward to move a walker with only one hand because of its U-shaped construction, and because a two-handed grip is the natural way of manipulating such a structure. Necessarily then, both hands are occupied during use and the user is therefore severely limited in freedom and ability to carry the variety of articles, such as pocketbooks, purses, medical accessories and other paraphernalia that is customary or might be of assistance. While such articles could be carried in pockets provided in the wearer's garments or in bags suspended from the neck or shoulder, the result would be to add to the weight required to be supported by the already inadequate limbs of the user and make walking all the more difficult.
The object of the present invention is a carrier attachment which is suspended directly from the walker itself and is constructed in two sections including a rigid supporting traylike section for disposition along the top of the U-shaped frame and a hanging pocket or pouch section formed with one or more pockets for transporting the needed articles connected by suspension straps encircling a frame member of the walker.